Hi folks... trust you are all in the pink of health. Have been away from blogging for a month now and it's good to be back.
Yesterday as I was getting home from work I was listening to the radio .... 93.5 Red FM to be exact. Lets say it's not like I am an avid radio listener or anything but just to enliven the drive and since I had forgotten to get a good CD I put the radio on. There was this Saturday night live English music programme on. The RJ was some Jose. He was taking calls for the requests. There was a call and the callers spoke in Hindi. This charlie Jose actually told him that it was an English prog. so he should speak in English. The caller didn't sound as if he knew English and was probably too embarrassed and ended up just saying 'hello, hello'. The call ended and this Jose actually had the gaul to say that these are the hindi listeners of our prog. I was really disgusted. I wanted to tell him "buddy.... let me remind you we live in a country whose national language is hindi"..... be glad that the "aam junta" who speaks hindi actually listens to your channel or you might just be out of job.
After another song I guess Sir Jose must have realised his faux pas... rather he had put both his feet together in his mouth. So when again another "hindi " caller called he said that since it was an english music prog. he was asked to speak in English and show that he couldn't understand hindi. HA... Amazing isn't it. Can't a hindi caller tell him in hindi which ENGLISH song he wants to hear. he wasn't going to translate the title in hindi as well.
We make a big hue and cry about Ms. Shilpa Shetty being at the end of racist remarks...... but can we stop our own babus from making snide remarks against the "vernies"?
Showing posts with label pet peeve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pet peeve. Show all posts
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Statutory warning: BPL mobile is bad for your health.
These days theres a lot written about customer service and how the customer is the king. Unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of interacting with such companies. To my bad luck I have interacted with companies who don’t know the spelling of “customer” and neither the meaning. Case in point being the following.
I have been using BPL MOTS for the past 6yrs (at the very least… probably more). Recently I have been getting calls from their call center telling me the pros of going in for billing or rather post paid instead of the pre paid that I was using. They would be falling all over themselves trying to sell it to me (possibly for the commission). Finally I decided to try it. Guess it wasn’t my lucky day when I took this decision.
Right away they sent a man to my house to get me to fill the form and I paid the required Rs.599/- (actually 600 cos these people always forget to return the Re 1 change). I gave him the photo copies of all the necessary documents that they had asked for. He said it would be activated the next day and assured me that the balance that was on my MOTS card will be carried forward.
They activated the billing procedure after 2 days. After which I got umpteen sms’s about welcoming me to the world of billing. This evening I get an sms from BPL mobile …which I quote verbatim “dear sub, pls provide additional details within 24hrs to dealer/bpl gallery to activate ur out going calls post verification and to avoid suspension.” Sender bpl mobile sent 18:17:33 hrs on 21-12-2006. to say I was taken aback is an understatement. I was shocked by the language. They did not even ask me for any more docs and just send me a threatening message. I called their mobile assist (don’t ask me why they call it assist… I guess they have a “hatke” sense of humour). Spoke to one Rakesh. Told him I was most upset and unhappy about being treated in this manner. I told him why cant you have a checklist where by your visiting personnel can tick off if he has got all the copies of necessary docs from me. I told him I work in shifts and it is not possible for me to visit a bpl gallery at the drop of a hat. What does he mean by 24hrs? I told him that if I could give a couple of photocopies I could give of 10 docs. All they need to do was ask. He told me that they were not aware of this happening and would have to check with their other dept. I told him I thought they were a computerized company at the very least. Why is it such a trouble for them to feed details about a customer in their computer so that whoever answers the call doesn’t give the impression of being dumb? I told him that I wanted them to call me back so that I could have a “meaningful conversation” with them about their absolutely shoddy service. Also since I had a roaming service on my MOTS and the charges of 49rs were already taken from it for the month of dec. I did not want them to recharge me that once they started the roaming service again. I ended the call.
A couple of minutes after this call I had to call a colleague of mine. Imagine my disbelief …when I tried to call his number I was told that the outgoing calls were barred. I called 800 again (the toll free number)….. this time it was some Prakash who wanted to help me. That’s what they say… haven’t had much help. So I told him to put me on to Rakesh. He told me that Rakesh was busy with another call and he would help me. So I said to him that I got the sms exactly an hour back and it gave me a notice of 24hrs and you have cut my outgoing calls in an hour? I mean I cannot understand their sense of time. I told him I don’t know how you do it buddy…but I want my outgoing calls started NOW otherwise I want my money back the 599rs and my MOTS balance which was about Rs875. I don’t want to subscribe to such a company. He told me he would put in a request and it would take them 24hrs. I told him but according to your sms 24hrs means 1hr. since they cut my outgoing calls. So by that formula I should get my money back in 1hr. So he tells me there was a problem with my verification. The guy who was sent to give a surprise visit to check my house address for verification couldn’t find it. I told him buddy try another one. I asked him whether he was aware I had a phone from which I was speaking. If the dumbo couldn’t locate my house all he had to do was call. He tells me it was a “surprise” visit. I told him even if it was “surprise” he could have asked me the location and dropped whenever he wanted to “surprise”me. I have lived in the same place for 33yrs. The peon they sent to fill out my billing application found the address without any probs. And for this flimsy reason they cut my outgoing calls without even checking with me.
I would like to advice whoever is going in for BPL mobile do so at your own risk. If you need the headaches…. The adrenalin…. If you suffer from low BP and want your BP to shoot up… then and then only subscribe to BPL mobile. I was happy using the MOTS as I didn’t have to interact with any customer service agents and even though the charges are higher …let me tell you the aggro is less.
I have been using BPL MOTS for the past 6yrs (at the very least… probably more). Recently I have been getting calls from their call center telling me the pros of going in for billing or rather post paid instead of the pre paid that I was using. They would be falling all over themselves trying to sell it to me (possibly for the commission). Finally I decided to try it. Guess it wasn’t my lucky day when I took this decision.
Right away they sent a man to my house to get me to fill the form and I paid the required Rs.599/- (actually 600 cos these people always forget to return the Re 1 change). I gave him the photo copies of all the necessary documents that they had asked for. He said it would be activated the next day and assured me that the balance that was on my MOTS card will be carried forward.
They activated the billing procedure after 2 days. After which I got umpteen sms’s about welcoming me to the world of billing. This evening I get an sms from BPL mobile …which I quote verbatim “dear sub, pls provide additional details within 24hrs to dealer/bpl gallery to activate ur out going calls post verification and to avoid suspension.” Sender bpl mobile sent 18:17:33 hrs on 21-12-2006. to say I was taken aback is an understatement. I was shocked by the language. They did not even ask me for any more docs and just send me a threatening message. I called their mobile assist (don’t ask me why they call it assist… I guess they have a “hatke” sense of humour). Spoke to one Rakesh. Told him I was most upset and unhappy about being treated in this manner. I told him why cant you have a checklist where by your visiting personnel can tick off if he has got all the copies of necessary docs from me. I told him I work in shifts and it is not possible for me to visit a bpl gallery at the drop of a hat. What does he mean by 24hrs? I told him that if I could give a couple of photocopies I could give of 10 docs. All they need to do was ask. He told me that they were not aware of this happening and would have to check with their other dept. I told him I thought they were a computerized company at the very least. Why is it such a trouble for them to feed details about a customer in their computer so that whoever answers the call doesn’t give the impression of being dumb? I told him that I wanted them to call me back so that I could have a “meaningful conversation” with them about their absolutely shoddy service. Also since I had a roaming service on my MOTS and the charges of 49rs were already taken from it for the month of dec. I did not want them to recharge me that once they started the roaming service again. I ended the call.
A couple of minutes after this call I had to call a colleague of mine. Imagine my disbelief …when I tried to call his number I was told that the outgoing calls were barred. I called 800 again (the toll free number)….. this time it was some Prakash who wanted to help me. That’s what they say… haven’t had much help. So I told him to put me on to Rakesh. He told me that Rakesh was busy with another call and he would help me. So I said to him that I got the sms exactly an hour back and it gave me a notice of 24hrs and you have cut my outgoing calls in an hour? I mean I cannot understand their sense of time. I told him I don’t know how you do it buddy…but I want my outgoing calls started NOW otherwise I want my money back the 599rs and my MOTS balance which was about Rs875. I don’t want to subscribe to such a company. He told me he would put in a request and it would take them 24hrs. I told him but according to your sms 24hrs means 1hr. since they cut my outgoing calls. So by that formula I should get my money back in 1hr. So he tells me there was a problem with my verification. The guy who was sent to give a surprise visit to check my house address for verification couldn’t find it. I told him buddy try another one. I asked him whether he was aware I had a phone from which I was speaking. If the dumbo couldn’t locate my house all he had to do was call. He tells me it was a “surprise” visit. I told him even if it was “surprise” he could have asked me the location and dropped whenever he wanted to “surprise”me. I have lived in the same place for 33yrs. The peon they sent to fill out my billing application found the address without any probs. And for this flimsy reason they cut my outgoing calls without even checking with me.
I would like to advice whoever is going in for BPL mobile do so at your own risk. If you need the headaches…. The adrenalin…. If you suffer from low BP and want your BP to shoot up… then and then only subscribe to BPL mobile. I was happy using the MOTS as I didn’t have to interact with any customer service agents and even though the charges are higher …let me tell you the aggro is less.
Friday, December 1, 2006
False promises.
Hey folks… am back at my computer… and theres steam coming out my ears… after having a meaningful conversation with the Citibank (CB)customer service representative. About a month and a half back CB came out with a deal that if you shop for a certain sum at the Shoppers stop then you get 5% cash back. This was the first time I actually participated in such a scheme. So I wasn’t too sure how it worked. When I paid the bill I was not given any cash back so I asked about it and found that I would have to call CB and tell them about it. So I called them…. First couple of times the telephone conversation was mysteriously cut ( I say mysteriously cos just when I got to the part where I find out how I get my cash back the phone disconnected). After a few days I felt a bit lucky so thought I should call them up again. When I did again I was directed to some one else…. And by the end of the call I still wasn’t enlightened. So I call again… I should get an award for being patient….. again this girl tells me that she’ll put my query to the proper dept. So finally I asked her if she would be kind enough to call me back when it was sorted out. She told me they cannot call back… that I should call back. This was when I lost it and generally told her that I had already made 5-6 calls…. Well I wasn’t counting… she had the gall to tell me that it was my 4th call…. I stand corrected.. I told her for me that’s 3 calls too many!
This evening I called them again as last time I had actually been given a request no. I gave my number and the answer was that “if the deal was on at the time I would get the cash back.” I mean come on. It’s a promotion by CB and if they are not aware that the promotion was on who would be! I think this requires divine intervention. Cos CB is blissfully unaware of their own promotions and they train their personnel to show others their ignorance… Amazing. This time the girl was going on about how “certainly” she would check with the other dept. to be specific about the reply… how “certainly” she would do it… but in the first place they are not “certain” about this at all…. So what is the meaning of the word “certainly” in their dictionary. Finally I told her that the amount I was spending on the phone calls would be equivalent to the 5% cash back. I think that must be the deal…. Come to think of it…. They must have a deal with MTNL ( the telephone company)…. We’ll come up with this deal and you can earn money cos these poor fools would keep calling CB to get their 5% back and would spend lots more.
So you people out there… be very careful about these deals! When it comes to them marketing their loans and draft I am supposedly an esteemed customer. They make me feel that I am a VIP for them. But when it comes to the crunch…. They don’t come through with flying colours. So much for customer service.
This evening I called them again as last time I had actually been given a request no. I gave my number and the answer was that “if the deal was on at the time I would get the cash back.” I mean come on. It’s a promotion by CB and if they are not aware that the promotion was on who would be! I think this requires divine intervention. Cos CB is blissfully unaware of their own promotions and they train their personnel to show others their ignorance… Amazing. This time the girl was going on about how “certainly” she would check with the other dept. to be specific about the reply… how “certainly” she would do it… but in the first place they are not “certain” about this at all…. So what is the meaning of the word “certainly” in their dictionary. Finally I told her that the amount I was spending on the phone calls would be equivalent to the 5% cash back. I think that must be the deal…. Come to think of it…. They must have a deal with MTNL ( the telephone company)…. We’ll come up with this deal and you can earn money cos these poor fools would keep calling CB to get their 5% back and would spend lots more.
So you people out there… be very careful about these deals! When it comes to them marketing their loans and draft I am supposedly an esteemed customer. They make me feel that I am a VIP for them. But when it comes to the crunch…. They don’t come through with flying colours. So much for customer service.
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